The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-10-11
Erroneous Tests of Fiction.

WrIter III WestoTn pcr'ou'o'u va"
put into convenient shape some com
mon errors concerning popularity as
test of merit in book. He seems tc
think, for instance. that the love of the
marvellous and impossible in fiction,
which Is shown not only by "the un-
thinking multitude clamoring about
the book counters for fiction of that
sort, but by the "literory elect also,
Is proof of some principle in human
nature which ought to be respected rs
well as tolerated. He seems to be.
lieve that the ebullition of this passion
forms sufficient answer to those who
say that art of all kinds should repre-
sent life. and that the art which
msrepresents life Is feeble art and
false art. But it appears to us that a
little carefuler reasoning from little
closer inspection of the facts would not
have Drought him to these conclusions.
In the first place, we doubt very much
whether the 'literary elect have been
fascinated in great numbers by the
fiction in question; but il we supposed
them to have really fallen under that
spoil, we should still DO able to account
for their fondness and that of the "un-
thinking multitude" upon the same
grounds, without honoring either very
much. 1t is the habit of hasty casuists
to regard civilization as inclusive of
all the members of n civilized commu-
nifty; but this is palpable error.
Many persons in every civilized COM
munity live in a state of more or less
savagery with respect to their habits,
their morals, and their propensities;
and they are held in check only by the
law. Many more yet are savage in
their tastes, as they show by the deco
ration of their houses and persons, and
by their choice of books and pictures,
and these are left to the restraints of
public opinion. In fact, no man can
be said to be thoroughly civilized or
always civilized; the most refined, the
most enlightened person has his moods,
his moments OF barbarism, in which
the best or even the second best shall
not please him. At these times the
Uttered and the unlettered are alike
primitive, and their qualifications are
of the same simple Sort the highly
cultivated person may then like melo-
drama, impossible fiction, and the
trapeze as sincerely and thoroughly as
boy of thirteen or barbarian of
any age.
We do not blame him for these moods;
we find something instructive and inter-
esting in them; but if they lastingly es-
tablish themselves in him we could not
help deploring the state of that person.
No one can really think that the ''litera-
ry elect who are said to have Joined the
"unthinking multitude in clamoring
about the book counters for the roman
ces of no-man's land, take the same
kind of pleasure in them rs they do in
novel of Tolstoi, Tourguenief. George
Eliot, Thackeray, Balzac, Manzoni,
Hawthorne. Henry James, Thomas
Hardy, Palacio Valdes, or even Walter
Scott. They have joined the ''unthink-
ing multitude perhaps because they are
tired of thinking, and expect to find re-
Taxation in feeling-feeling crudely,
grossly, merely. For once in way
there is no great harm in this; perhaps
harm at all. 1t is perfectly natural
let them have their innocent debauch
But let us distinguish, for our own
sake and guidance, between the differ
ent kinds of things that please the same
kind of people; between the things that
please them habitually and those that
please them occasionally; between the
pleasures that edify them and those
that amuse them. Otherwise we shall
be in danger of becoming permanently
part of the ''unthinking multitude"
and of remaining puerile, primitive,
savage. We shall be so in moods and
Mt moments; but let us not fancy that
those are high moods or fortunate mo
ments. If they are harmless, that is the
most that can be said for them. They
are lapses from which wo can
perhaps 90 forward more vigorously;
but even this is not certain.
Our own philosophy of tho matter,
however, would not bring US to prohi-
biton of such literary amusements as
the writer quoted seems to find signiii
cant of . grow ne indifference to truth
and sanity in fiction. Once more, we
say, these amusements have their place,
as the circus has, and the burlesque,
and negro minstrclsy, and the ballot.
and prestidgitation No one of these
Is to be dcspised in its place; but we
had better understand that it is not the
highest place. and that it is hardly an
intellectual delight. The lapse of all
the Literary elect" in the world could
not gnfy uureality; and their present
mood, If il exists. is of no more weight
against that beauty in literature which
L. Il.